Eighteen white Republican men in the Senate voted Thursday to end what they called state-sponsored discrimination. In fact, the bill they passed would criminalize any action by governmental entities that considers race, gender, ethnicity or nationality. The bill would also apply to cities, counties, colleges and universities and school districts, and would not only effectively end affirmative action, but could obliterate economic and educational programs seeking to boost opportunities for women and minorities.
Senate Bill 71, sponsored by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Jonesboro), was the rare piece of legislation to squeak through passage with a narrow majority. All Democrats opposed it, along with the only three female Republican senators and a handful of the more enlightened Republican male senators.
The vote capped a sequence in the Senate that encapsulates everything that’s wrong with the Republican-dominated legislature. Just before it, the Senate, on a mostly party line vote, approved a bill that would require all state contractors to pledge to not boycott gun and ammo manufacturers and the fossil fuel industry. It’s modeled on the law, which the Arkansas Times long fought, that requires contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel.
So the Senate has sent a message that the state is for discriminating on behalf of guns, ammo and fossil fuels, but won’t acknowledge the hardships of ethnic minorities, women or disabled veterans.
Sullivan, in explaining his bill, followed his typical routine: He said his critics were personally attacking him and suggested they were lying. He was deeply offended.
While discussing this bill earlier in a Senate committee, Sullivan said it was immoral to try fix discrimination with additional discrimination, a statement Sen. Clarke Tucker (D-Little Rock) pointed out was an empty platitude.
“That may be true, but there was never any discussion [in committee] on whether the platitudes were true,” Sullivan said today.
Sullivan repeatedly said that the bill emphasizes need and merit rather than race, sex or national origin, and suggested that many of the groups and programs that consider those factors would be safe because they address need. Sullivan also noted that the bill had been amended to allow time for state entities to make changes and, should they run into problems, appear before the Legislative Council. It would be yet another example of the legislature seizing power from other state entities.
Sen. Linda Chesterfield (D-Little Rock) noted that the programs Sullivan targeted didn’t exist at the expense of other people. They’re aimed at helping groups overcome whatever in their past has been a detriment. She made special emphasis that, as defined by the state, minorities in Arkansas include women and disable veterans.
“In society, it’s not what you know but who you know,” Chesterfield said.
Sen. Alan Clark (R-Lonsdale) said he was speaking on the bill — rather than for or against it — and began by decrying “woke” college admissions officers and “reverse discrimination,” but said in his own life, both as a young man and later as an employer, he found what Chesterfield said about nepotism to be true. He said he didn’t buy a lot of the rhetoric from those who oppose the bill, but said, “I know in my mind that everything is not fair.” He voted against the bill.
Tucker, as usual, delivered a thorough takedown. “Why are we here?” he asked his colleagues. Is it to identify real issues that need fixing and engage in serious work? “Or are we here to engage in platitudes and thump our chest?”
He pointed to Senate Bill 295, which undercuts the solar industry in the state. Tucker said he didn’t agree with the bill, but it was unquestionably the product of research and facts. You could ask Sen. Jonathan Dismang (R-Searcy), the bill’s sponsor, any question about the solar industry in Arkansas, and he could answer you, Tucker said.
Sullivan, on the other hand, has refused to engage on all the potential consequences of the bill.
“The impact of the bill is huge,” Tucker said. “It’s beyond my own understanding.”
He gave just a few examples of the potential impacts: The Minority Health Commission would likely close or at least be deeply impacted. It’s especially engaged in working to address maternal mortality in Black mothers in Arkansas. Arkansas has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country, and the Black mortality rate is four times higher than the white rate, Tucker said.
Historically Black colleges and universities have helped build the Black middle class in the United States. All four of the HBCUs in Arkansas get money from the state. How would they be affected? “I don’t know the answer,” Tucker said. “I demand a real answer.” (Spoiler alert: None was forthcoming.)
Tucker noted that Sen. Missy Irvin (R-Mountain View) sponsored a bill in a previous session to create the Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise Division of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, a necessary effort because national studies have found that Arkansas ranks low in providing a suitable environment for entrepreneurship, primarily because the state is hostile to women entrepreneurs.
He also brought up camps that UAMS offers for minority children who want to work in health care and the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, a state museum devoted to celebrating Black art and culture in Arkansas. In committee, Tucker suggested that under the bill the museum would close. Sullivan said today that wasn’t true and he’d confirmed so with Attorney General Tim Griffin. Tucker said he respectfully disagreed with Griffin. “Every transaction the museum does has a preference of race,” he said. It may not have to close its doors, but the bill would fundamentally change its mission.
The bill now goes to House committee.
UPDATE: Asked about the bill during a press conference, Gov. Sarah Sanders said she was tracking it closely and waiting to see a “final product,” before weighing in.